Make space for arthouse cinema: Kiran Rao

By Hindustan Times

Filmmaker Kiran Rao, who made her directorial debut with off-beat film Dhobi Ghat, feels there is need to create space for such films. However, she admits it's risky to make non-commercial films and that she would think before making a film like her debut vehicle. "Today, if you ask me if
I would want to make film like Dhobi Ghat, I would think again about it," she said stressing on the point that the country needs right infrastructure to showcase off beat movies.

"There's need to have arthouse cinema (theatres) to show films that are not necessarily popular in content because I think venues like this will help understand that language of such kind of cinema," said Rao, who was at the 12th Osian's-Cinefan Film Festival Monday for a panel discussion of her film 2010 film Dhobi Ghat.

"I think the India is getting opening up to such films and slowly the audience is also increasing," she added.

She was accompanied by the cast and crew of the film. Rao considers herself lucky that her offbeat film got a colossal release, but agrees that usually such films struggle to find a place in multiplexes.

"Multiplexes isn't the way it is made out to be. At the end of the day, they believe in profit sharing. If I as a filmmaker take a very radical subject, which might not get an audience in the first week, multiplexes wouldn't agree to let it play on their screens. They would throw me out in the very first week," said Rao.

"They would not keep me until they get at least 40 percent of the audience. So the films that take risks isn't the right choice for multiplexes. But I am fortunate that I make a film the way I want it to be and I even got the release that I wanted it to be," she added.